Women's downhill at the XXII Olympic Winter Games
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Maze, Gisin, and Gut on the podium
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Venue |
Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort Krasnaya Polyana, Russia |
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Date | 12 February 2014 | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 41 from 23 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 1:41.57 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Tina Maze | Slovenia | ||
Dominique Gisin | Switzerland | ||
Lara Gut | Switzerland |
Women's Downhill | |
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Location | Rosa Khutor |
Vertical | 790 m (2,592 ft) |
Top elevation | 1,755 m (5,758 ft) |
Base elevation | 965 m (3,166 ft) |
The Women's downhill competition of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was held at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort near Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, on Wednesday, 12 February. The race was won by Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland, who posted the same time. Lara Gut, also of Switzerland, was a tenth of a second back and took the bronze medal.
The race course was 2.713 km (1.69 mi) in length, with a vertical drop of 790 m (2,592 ft). The gold medalists had an average speed of 96.158 km/h (59.75 mph) and an average vertical descent rate of 7.778 m/s (25.52 ft/s). The temperature was above freezing at the starting gate and skies were clear.
Fabienne Suter was the first out of the gate and led until Gisin surpassed her by 0.37 seconds. Immediately after Gisin, Daniela Merighetti took a provisional second position, and stayed there until Gut, skiing 18th, replaced her at 0.10 seconds behind Gisin. Maze was the 21st racer out of the gate and led at all the intervals, but finished with exactly the same time as Gisin. The best run after Maze was by Lotte Smiseth Sejersted of Norway, who finished sixth.
Lindsey Vonn, the defending Olympic champion, did not participate, and the 2010 silver and bronze medalists, Julia Mancuso and Elisabeth Görgl, finished outside the podium. It was the first time any Olympic alpine event has ended in a tie for the gold. Maze also won the first ever gold medal of Winter Olympics for Slovenia. Both Gisin and Gut won their first Olympic medals.